Federal War
Spending Exceeds Health, Education, Welfare, And Safety Budgets For 50
States
By Sherwood RossThe U.S.
spends more for war annually than all state governments combined spend
for the health, education, welfare, and safety of 308 million Americans.
Joseph Henchman, director of state projects for the Tax Foundation of
Washington, D.C., says the states collected a total of $781 billion in
taxes in 2008.
read entire article

"Contractors" Represent 69% of US Combatants In
Afghanistan
Contrary to popular belief, the US actually has 189,000 personnel on
the ground
in Afghanistan right now-and that number is quickly rising.
By Jeremy ScahillDecember 18, 2009 "RebelReports" A hearing in Sen. Claire McCaskill's
Contract Oversight subcommittee on contracting in Afghanistan has
highlighted some important statistics that provide a window into the
extent to which the Obama administration has picked up the Bush-era war
privatization baton and sprinted with it. Overall, contractors now
comprise a whopping 69% of the Department of Defense's total workforce,
"the highest ratio of contractors to military personnel in US history."
That's not in one war zone-that's the Pentagon in its entirety.
read entire article

Copenhagen: Historic Failure That Will Live in InfamyBy Joss Garman
Independent UKThe
most progressive US president in a generation comes to the most
important international meeting since the Second World War and delivers
a speech so devoid of substance that he might as well have made it on
speakerphone from a beach in Hawaii. His aides argue in private that he
had no choice, such is the opposition on Capitol Hill to any action
that could challenge the dominance of fossil fuels in American life.
And so the nation that put a man on the Moon can't summon the
collective will to protect men and women back here on Earth from the
consequences of an economic model and lifestyle choice that has taken
on the mantle of a religion.
read entire article

Coastal Post Going Or Coming?Don Deane
Publisher-EditorThe
34-year publishing run of the Coastal Post has been a grand experience
for this editor-publisher and founder. First printing on mimeographed
stencils, in 1975, then copy-machines and finally an offset press-the
paper began as the smallest, most-local of the community publications
in Marin. Over the next three decades our coverage stretched into West
Marin, the County, the Internet and finally focusing on worldwide
political inequities, human catastrophes and unnatural environmental
cataclysms.
read entire article

Africa: Dying, Drying, And Disappearing
By Paul VirgoLake Chad was bigger than Israel less than 50 years
ago. Today its surface area is les than a tenth of its earlier size,
amid forecasts the lake could disappear altogether within 20 years. __
Climate change and overuse have put one of Africa's mightiest lakes in
mortal danger, and the livelihoods of the 30 million people who depend
on its waters is hanging by a thread as a result.
read entire article

One Sided Nuclear Reality In The Middle East
By Karen NakamuraNeo-conservatives
in Israel are hypocritically stoking the flames of public option to
make sure the world stays focused on Iran's nuclear program.
Simultaneously, the Israelis refuse to allow the world to examine their
own atomic stockpiles.
read entire article

Canada To Pull Troops Out of Afghanistan by 2011Amid
deepening rift over the handling of the NATO war in Afghanistan,
Premier Stephen Harper has reaffirmed that Canadian troops would leave
the war-ravaged county in 2011
read entire article

Disaster for Billion-Dollar Alaskan Fishery
Unsustainable Catch Limits for Pollock Fishery Threaten Alaskan
EcosystemsResponding
to an announcement from the North Pacific Fishery Management Service on
the 2010 catch limit of 813,000 million metric tons for the pollock
fishery today, George Pletnikoff, Greenpeace senior oceans campaigner
in Anchorage, offered the following statement:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska--"If the pollock fishery is a model of anything, it's
a model of unsustainability. Instead of responding to government
reports that the pollock population has sunk to an all-time low this
year, the Council is charting a course to destruction for the very
ecosystems that have sustained whales, seals and entire communities for
generations.
read entire article

Israelis Bid To Buy Al-Jazeera from Qatar
Posted: 10/09
From: Mathaba.netAn Israeli media tycoon has offered to buy the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera
satellite television network from the government of Qatar
Haim Saban, has submitted an offer to the Qatari government in a bid to
purchase half of the Doha -based Al-Jazeera satellite network.
read entire article

Obama Warns Jintao: US Not Able To Stop Israeli Attack
On IranU.S.
President Barack Obama has warned his Chinese counterpart that the
United States would not be able to keep Israel from attacking Iranian
nuclear installations for much longer, senior officials in Jerusalem
told Haaretz. read entire article

Doctor's Report: The Wounds
of GazaBy Dr.
Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr. Swee
AngTwo Surgeons from the UK, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr Swee Ang,
managed to get into Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Here they
describe their experiences, share their views, and conclude that
the people of Gaza are extremely vulnerable and defenseless in the
event of another attack.
read entire article

Deadly Changes For AIDS Funding
By Karen NakamuraCaught
in the present unpalatable credit squeeze, California's Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger used his veto power on June 28, 2009 and threatened to
cut $85 million from the California Office of HIV/AIDS funding. Because
of this, effective Feb. 28, the respected Hospice by the Bay has been
forced to close its successful 20-year AIDS program.
read entire article

Going Green Means Having Fewer Kids
By Emily BadgerMiller-McCune.comThere are already just too many people on the planet. What are we supposed to do about it?Andrew Revkin, an environmental reporter for The New York Times and
author of the paper's Dot Earth blog, warns that the math is pretty
depressing.
read entire article

Condoms May Exacerbate Spread Of HIV/AIDS
By Clemente Ferrer "I
would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising
slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another,
the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the
contrary, we risk worsening the problem," said Pope Benedict XVI on his
visit to Cameroon. read entire article

Obama Year One: Betrayal and Failure
By Stephen LendmanPromising change after eight George Bush and Republican dominated
years, Barack Obama won the most sweeping non-incumbent victory in over
50 years along with congressional Democrats gaining large House and
Senate majorities. In addition, at 56.8%, voter turnout was the highest
since Richard Nixon's "secret plan" to end the Vietnam war and his
"Southern" and "law and order" strategies beat Hubert Humphrey and
independent George Wallace in 1968.
read entire article

They're Hungary And They're Coming
By Karen NakamuraMost
of us saw the scary ad by HungryPests.org produced by the US Department
of Agriculture USDA) showing the little girl skipping through an
orchard as fruit decays in her wake. That is until she transforms into
a swarm of Killer Insects. "They're Hungry and They're Coming!" It's as
creepy as any Halloween "slasher flick". Then there's the problem of
terrifying children whose parents have spent hours showing how
beautiful and beneficial the little creatures are.
read entire article

US Workers Starved Into Military Service
By Sandy LeonVest
Published by CommonDreams.orgIt
was only a matter of time before the nation's skyrocketing unemployment
translated into new recruits for the most powerful military force in
the world.With the official US unemployment rate
at 10 percent and climbing (that's more than 15 million people
struggling to put food on the table) and nearly double that number if
you include part-time wage-earners who need full-time jobs, never mind
all of those 'discouraged workers,' it's little wonder that so many of
the nation's jobless are flocking into its military recruitment offices.
read entire article

800,000 Americans Busted Annually For Pot
By Sherwood Ross Seven
million Americans have been arrested since 1995 on marijuana charges
and 41,000 of them are rotting in federal and State prisons---but the
public is starting to rebel against "the preposterous war on pot," two
political scientists say. Thousands of other pot users and sellers are
confined in local jails as well.
read entire article

New Medical Marijuana Policy Issued By Feds
By Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON
(AP) _ The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical
marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws,
under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday.Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The
Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use
of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in
strict compliance with state laws.
read entire article

Assault on Oakland's Homeless Population Continues
By Lynda CarsonOakland
- It's cold and wet. Dawn breaks, and the screams of a howling cat in
the distance sounds like a child abandoned in the frigid cold of the
night, begging for attention. A raggedy looking
homeless man recently near the entranceway of a Lucky store in Oakland,
is chased off by security a few evenings ago, barely a moment after I
had the pleasure of giving him a dollar, to buy something to eat.
read entire article

The Raw (And Ugly) Truth About The War On Drugs
By Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Source: NaturalNews
Drugs are bad. Drugs destroy peoples' lives. Didn't you know that
marijuana turns regular everyday people into zombie pot smokers? That's
why we have a war on drugs in America: to protect our children from
potheads.Drugs are bad. Especially marijuana. I learned this the
other day when I visited an elementary school as a guest speaker. The
schoolchildren were well trained in describing the dangers of drugs. On
command, they would spout out any number of statements describing them.
read entire article

The AuCoin ReportNews Briefs from the Great OutdoorsWill Asian Carp overwhelm the Great Lakes?Invasive
Asian carp are probably in the Great Lakes already, authorities say,
but only a few and not enough to cause problems. However, to try to
prevent more from entering Lake Michigan the Illinois Department of
Natural Resources is electro-stunning native fish and temporarily
removing them from the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Then they'll
poison the water and kill the carp, if any. If carp populations
increase in Lake Michigan from the existing population they are ready
to go to the next step, poison, using tiny "biobullet" pills that will
kill only carp.read entire article

How the Feds Imprison the InnocentBy Paul Craig RobertsAuthors
of serious books seldom have cause to celebrate, but Larry Stratton and
I have two reasons to open the champagne. Crown Publishing, a division
of Random House, has announced a second printing of the second edition
of The Tyranny of Good Intentions, and the noted civil libertarian and
defense attorney, Harvey Silverglate, has just published a book
covering many of the same legal cases and vetting our conclusion that
in the United States every American is in grave danger from
unscrupulous prosecutors who target the innocent. read entire article

Abbas and the Goldstone Report-Our Shame Is CompleteBy Ramzy BaroudThe
Goldstone report is the most comprehensive, and transparent
investigation as of yet into what happened in Gaza during the 23-day
war. A new war might be awaiting besieged Gaza. Time is running out,
notes Ramzy Baroud. Our Shame is Complete.read entire article

Zionist Dominance in the Obama PresidencyRebel NewsBe not deceived by Barack Hussein Obama's middle name or by the fact
that he spent several childhood years in Indonesia. His political
career is a product of a Westside Chicago Ashkenazi network with roots
that trace directly back to organized crime of the 1920s.read entire article

NEWS FROM THE GARLICPresident Announces Invasion After Peace SpeechBy Frank ScottAfter
giving one of his weekly stirring speeches on peace, which bring tears
to the eyes of admirers, detractors and those suffering Mental
Antagonism Disorder (MAD) the president called for a massive military
attack on the third world nation Oblivia.read entire article

Ex-CIA Chief James Woolsey Handed Down Gag Order to 9/11 Firefighters
"We don't want to end up with an Emperor instead of a duly-elected
Mayor, Governor, or President, and silence instead of justice."By Jerry MazzaInfowars, This tale begins during and shortly after 9/11/2001, when a
writer named Randy Lavello published a story at Prison Planet, Bombs in
the Building: World Trade Center 'Conspiracy Theory' is a Conspiracy
Fact. Among the many tales in this article, a number of which were
picked up in Mike Rivero's web site, what really happened, is a
conversation between Lavello and Lieutenant Fireman and former
Auxiliary Police Officer, Paul Isaac Jr. It's a head-spinner.read entire article

The Toilet Than Can Help Solve Our Water and Energy ProblemsBy Gar Smith, Earth Island JournalUpwards
of 3 million people die annually from diarrhea, dysentery, and
parasitic diseases -- all for the want of clean water. Meanwhile, each
year in the water-rich United States, 2.1 billion gallons of the
world's most precious liquid are used, not to water thirsty crops or
slake parched throats, but to flush human waste from home toilets to
municipal sewers. While harvesting rainwater and recycling graywater
are fine strategies, it's time to get to the seat of the problem. We
need a Toilet Revolution.read entire article

Brand New Bottle: Same Old WineBy Frank ScottWe
begin 2010 with a national debt over twelve trillion dollars and
rising. That's roughly 40 thousand dollars per taxpayer. Should we
continue financing the phony war on terror, which began in Afghanistan,
moved to Iraq, returned to Afghanistan, is spreading to Pakistan and
has lasted longer than World War Two? Or should we end the real terror
war on taxpayers in the USA?read entire article

Moo Town News"Through The Looking Glass"By Judy BorelloWhen I look ahead to 2010, I can't help but feel like I've fallen into
some surreal rabbit hole, where everything has become convoluted and
logic is way out of whack. Some of the ridiculous situations that we've
allowed the federal, state and local governments to get us into, driven
primarily by strong-armed environmental lobbyists, have upended
people's lives and landscapes with so much inequity and nonsense that
it's unbearable! Here are just a few examples:read entire article

A Shameful RealityBy Jeanette Pontacq
In the 1960s, I graduated from George Washington High School in San
Francisco. My education was free to my working class parents. As
a female, my male high school 'counselor' suggested to me that the best
future for me was as a secretary to some 'guy.' I admit that I
was not the most aware student before arriving at City College on Ocean
Avenue. At City, almost cost-free, I started to see the possibilities
in learning.read entire article

Our Global Ponzi EconomyBy Lester R. BrownOur
mismanaged world economy today has many of the characteristics of a
Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme takes payments from a broad base of
investors and uses these to pay off returns. It creates the illusion
that it is providing a highly attractive rate of return on investment
as a result of savvy investment decisions when in fact these
irresistibly high earnings are in part the result of consuming the
asset base itself. A Ponzi scheme investment fund can last only as long
as the flow of new investments is sufficient to sustain the high rates
of return paid out to previous investors. When this is no longer
possible, the scheme collapses-just as Bernard Madoff's $65-billion
investment fund did in December 2008.read entire article

Why The Republicans Were Right To Reject "Healthcare Reform" For All The Wrong ReasonsBy Stephen SimacLike
rocks in a roadway the Republicans stood firm against "socialized
medicine, at least if it's not for seniors, the military and
themselves. The Public Option promised by House Speaker Pelosi to shore
up the liberal base was drowned in the bathtub as the Senate and
Congressional bills coalesce into some rough beast. read entire article

The Coastal Post is a newspaper of general circulation published on or about the 1st of every month in Marin County, CA.
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to P.O. Box 31, Bolinas, CA 94924. PHONE (415) 868-1600 FAX (415) 868-0502. http://wwww.coastalpost.com
EMAIL:editor@coastalpost.com

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